Constellations — Urth Net

m.driussi25 Mar 1999, 21:23original as archived

Constellations

Mitchell A. Bailey, CONSTELLATIONS OF URTH'S SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE Amphisbaena (III, ch. 14) the Cross (III, ch. 18; V, ch. 49) the Crotali (V, ch. 49) the Eight (IV, ch. 25) Great Bull (III, ch. 18; IV, ch. 23) Hydra (III, ch. 18) Ihuaivulu (II, ch. 29) Little Wolf (III, ch. 18) Peryton (III, ch. 13) Septentrion (I, ch. 18) Swan (IV, ch. 23) Unicorn (III, ch. 18) Wolf (III, ch. 18) =mantis=

Mitchell A. Bailey30 Mar 1999, 20:40original as archived

↳ follows m.driussi · by subject

Thanks, mantis. That'll teach me to draft letters before my coffee kicks in, and to study southern constellations more diligently. Well, the conclusion is inescapable, given this many examples of constellations of our time still recognized by Severian, that Urth's sky as described in BNS is not consistent with the theory that Sev's time lies in a "far future" millions or tens of millions of years hence. I notice there's a Bull, but no minotaur. hmmm. Is your book available retail anywhere? I don't trust the Internet with my credit card just yet. m.driussi at genie.com wrote: ...

16 quoted lines

CONSTELLATIONS OF URTH'S SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE Amphisbaena (III, ch. 14) the Cross (III, ch. 18; V, ch. 49) the Crotali (V, ch. 49) the Eight (IV, ch. 25) Great Bull (III, ch. 18; IV, ch. 23) Hydra (III, ch. 18) Ihuaivulu (II, ch. 29) Little Wolf (III, ch. 18) Peryton (III, ch. 13) Septentrion (I, ch. 18) Swan (IV, ch. 23) Unicorn (III, ch. 18) Wolf (III, ch. 18) =mantis=

Matthew Malthouse31 Mar 1999, 13:05original as archived

↳ follows Mitchell A. Bailey · by subject

5 quoted lines

Mitchell A. Bailey wrote: Thanks, mantis. That'll teach me to draft letters before my coffee kicks in, and to study southern constellations more diligently. Well, the conclusion is inescapable, given this many examples of constellations of our time still recognized by Severian, that Urth's sky as described in BNS is not consistent with the theory that Sev's time lies in a "far future" millions or tens of millions of years hence.

I've seen this discussed more than once but remain unhappy with the "sooner rather than later" conclusion. How can this be reconciled with: 1: The mining industry of Saltus 2: The cliff face Sev decends to Cas' cottage 3: The 'sharp' peaks of mountains thrust up after those older ones carved inbto the likenesses of Autarchs? I can't avoid the conclusion that geological ages have passed since our epoch. Yet other thing otherwise (which is presumably the function of others. :)) Matthew

Peter Westlake31 Mar 1999, 13:33original as archived

↳ follows Matthew Malthouse · by subject

2 quoted lines

At 13:05 1999-03-31 +0000, Matthew Malthouse wrote: Mitchell A. Bailey wrote:

..

9 quoted lines · 1–2 deep

Well, the conclusion is inescapable, given this many examples of constellations of our time still recognized by Severian, that Urth's sky as described in BNS is not consistent with the theory that Sev's time lies in a "far future" millions or tens of millions of years hence.

I've seen this discussed more than once but remain unhappy with the "sooner rather than later" conclusion. How can this be reconciled with: 1: The mining industry of Saltus 2: The cliff face Sev decends to Cas' cottage 3: The 'sharp' peaks of mountains thrust up after those older ones carved inbto the likenesses of Autarchs? I can't avoid the conclusion that geological ages have passed since our epoch. Yet other thing otherwise (which is presumably the function of others. :))

I've wondered about this too. The problem is that the constellations, fauna, and (arguably) the geography are quite like those of our time. The people even drink matte still. The only answer I can think of, which is that this is a different cycle of the universe to our own and that the similarities are only repetitions and not identities, so that they don't have to occur at the same time or even at all, is hardly satisfying. On the subject of geography: I've seen references to a passage where Vodalus says that the Earth (or its magnetic field) has flipped over, but I can't find it anywhere. Does anyone have a chapter reference? It would help bolster my theory about where Gyoll is, how events in the north-east are visible from Typhon's right eye, and why Severian keeps getting lost all the time. SBear.